Tonight I approved yet another cancellation.
It was for guests who were coming for a popular sporting event that is now cancelled due to ‘you know what’.
A lovely lady called Angela who runs a B&B in Aberdeen and helped me out when I lived out of the area and came back to spend time with my children.
She gave us a lovely homely place to stay for our precious weekends together. I will always remember her warm hospitality.
She also taught me a valuable lesson.
Look after your regulars.
But like Angela does, I have looked after every single one of our bookers.
Because we both work in hospitality and so we NEED to be hospitable.
And to me that means that you sometimes need to be flexible when necessary.
To succeed in business you HAVE to be flexible.
Communication is pretty key as well I think.
So ever since the lockdown started I called our future guests (and those who were there at the time!).
This is called proactivity.
Proactivity is a good trait essential to thrive in business I think.
It allows people to get prepared, to plan, to pivot, and helps to reduce stress for all parties.
We spoke about the COVID situation and how it was affecting their decision to travel.
The vast majority of them understandably had serious concerns about the virus and their health.
So I gave them the option to cancel.
Every single one.
We try to be consistent also.
No matter what the value of their booking was.
I didn’t offer a credit note.
Or try to convince them to shift their booking so I could hold onto their money.
(This is the best you will get with many operators who do what we do).
I just gave them their money back.
I treat people the way I would like to be treat.
I have given everyone a full refund.
No exceptions.
Because to me these are exceptional circumstances.
To me, you have to take the rough with the smooth, both in your personal life and in business.
So maybe our way of operating will be remembered in future when not many operators have taken the stance we have.
We have done this for bookings from March until September.
That is 6 months or half of a year.
It has been tough but we KNOW it is still the right thing to do.
Book direct with Dwellcome Home and if you need to cancel for genuine reasons I will give you a full refund.
Do not book with the online travel agents. Many of these will keep your money. For doing very little.
I have worked with guests to try to get their money back from the online travel agents. Many of them have kept their slice of the guests money and have NOT offered refunds!
Is this fair? I’ll let you decide on that one.
We like to think that OUR policy, Dwellcome Home’s policy, is the more transparent, fair, and consistent than these 3rd parties policies hidden away in the small print.
What do you think?
Have you experienced any of what I have mentioned?
Or were you one of our great guests who got refunded.
Either way as always we’d love to hear from you.
Thanks for reading.
Colin.
PS – Angelas place is called the Adelphi Guest House. It’s a beautiful large granite house and I HIGHLY recommend it if you need somewhere to stay in Aberdeen. AND she makes a MEAN Scottish Breakfast (that means AWESOME for all you North Americans reading!). She’s from Shetland, knows Scotland inside out and has a heart of gold. If you call to book with her I guarantee that you won’t regret it.
